Thursday, June 29, 2006

Slammed by a MUNI door...

I'm not a regular MUNI rider, so maybe some of you out there who are can help explain this "malfunction". Does MUNI give riders a warning or a quick alarm signal, or a "Doors are closing" announcement like they do on BART, before suddenly slamming the door shut? I was walking out of a MUNI train last night (N Judah, going to the ballpark) and suddenly, without warning, the door slams on my shoulder and shoves me to the edge. The door had JUST opened for us to exit, and within 3 secondds, it slams shut on me?? It was a huge shock and since I'm not a big person, it actually hurt for a few minutes. The worst part was that the platform agent (to stop people from hopping on trains that say "DO NOT BOARD") who saw this incident, just looked at me with no remorse or concern and turned away.

Is this normal? Does the door just slam shut without any beep or announcement? That is dangerous!!!

3 comments:

rafael said...

On a very crowded southbound evening train Last Friday at the Daly City bart station I heard something that I never heard before. I heard "HOLD IT – HOLD THAT CHAIR – SENIOR CITIZEN!!" This made everyone on the train turn around to see what it was. It was a lady who looked like she was as old as my mother – mid sixties, but very capable of holding a job. I'm not sure where she worked, but she was wearing a black and white almost waiter kind of suit. She looked disheveled with huge wads of cotton in both ears. She made a beeline to the handicapped chairs, which were already taken by other seniors, and sat on a seat kitty corner to those. I'm not sure what kind of day she had or any other kind of ailments, but she pissed me off when she got off AT THE VERY NEXT STOP!! (which was Colma).

bartmusings said...

Many times I see someone who has merely a few gray hairs claiming to be senior citizen! I mean, do we have to start carding people on BART?

Josh said...

I ride MUNI every day (xfer from BART at Civic Center), and I can assure you that that there is a sound to indicate that the doors are closing. Over the PA system you will heer a high bonging noise prior to the doors closing. My guess is that the doors on this car were malfunctioning. Not surprising, a lot of the doors on the MUNI streetcars seem to have issues. There is a reason why I always consider BART the nicer half of my commute.